Dear Niantic, this game is dead.
This is not the game we signed up for,
This is not the competitive team game we signed up for,
This is not attracting new players
This has made the ones who did play stop playing.
Make some changes to the red weed before it's to late. For the sake of the community clinging on, it won't continue in this form, if it does then we should all play twice a year for anomalies and go elsewhere in between. Last chance saloon.
-Shottix
21

Comments
There's a few full time players left that are addicted to the game and can't stop. But otherwise the game is dead. There's no fielding, no strategy, no team. New players don't exist. There's no point in recommending the game. With the other gaming options out there many have found that Ingress just costs too much to play. It's turned into a driving game and nothing more. I personally like the machina as it gives me something to do and they won't chase me down in real life. But not everyone agrees. In my area I don't think it's contributed to less players since really there are only a handful as it is. The game needs something because right now it's dead.
I think we all agree that it has potential, but the level of spread, the amount of portals, an opponent that doesn't need to do those 5km walks, pay for access to the portals, can link all day every day, is not fun or engaging. It really does need to change.
How many more accounts don't log in daily since introduction of machina? How many less resonators get deployed, how many less fields of all size are being created? Niantic have these numbers and they should be alarmed by the decrease. Whatever plan they had it hasn't worked at all.
I'd like to point out that shottix is not of my multis.
Game is far from dead.
How we play the game is different.
Keeping in mind that adding a 3rd faction was a player request since Ingress first came out over 10 years ago.
The problem is there isn't many new players taking up the game, because, Niantic spent years not doing enough to market ALL their products.
I think Niantic is not interested in advertising ingress. Just look at the @NianticLabs instagram, there is not a single photo of Ingress but there is of his dead NBA game, it is incredible how little importance is given to the game that started all his success.
exactly, social media doesnt cost one dollar to post and advertise your game yet they dont do it strange eh? i think they just want current players to stay and pay for core, not get in new blood to the game.
If this really is their goal, they're f*ing up hard at the moment. Just like they did with all the other games, no exception.
Okay so I read your comment and now I'm thinking, if machina isn't for new players, who is it for? Because the players who were already enjoying the game didn't need machina. If I was a new player, I'd see these masses of red portals that I couldn't **** because they're all level 8 and my weapons won't work, I can't make a field to cover my village and call it my own because there's too much to destroy. The simple fact is people have way more important and engaging things to do with their time than spend their very little free time **** a bot that plays for free. The point of the game is to control minds and capture the earth for your faction, this core purpose in the game is now not possible. So what has the game become? "I reclaimed the most portals from the bot!" ? No thankyou.
Its not dead, its just a horrible change in the game that most don't like. I can't just randomly go to a park and make triangles. I have to spend time driving around the park to other portals to clear the red crapola that derps through the middle of the park before I can go walk in the park and play.
I don't mind if there is Machina. But it's beyond outta control. You can field around it, you can field over it. But even if you field where it's not, it will spawn and effing grow under your field. I really thought that wasn't supposed to happen. But it does. People are leaving the game due to it. Many are playing much less. There is less local MU on the board due to Machina. So, the core part of the game, you know the triangles aren't getting made.
I was really addicted to the game. Then the lagg stuff hit. Never really cleared up. I've done one recursion since lagg stuff hit. I really don't care to do another. I do play much less since Machina showed up. It's like playing against a spoofer. No sleep, no rules for it. It's really not that fun @NianticBrian I mean, is Machina fun for you to play around? Last time I looked in your hood, you were on portals a block away from L8 Machina portals. So I guess you aren't hitting them either. That or too busy promoting Niantic's other games. So, I guess thanks for breaking my addiction Brian.
They haven't advertised in forever. I thought that they were going to try to grow the userbase, but I really don't see that happening anytime soon without fixing some core issues in the game, and then spending some time/money advertising.
The one problem I have with those who used to play, trying to come back, is items for sale in the store. @ace once upon a time, stated big and boldly about not selling items in the Ingress Store. Those agents remember that. Others have come back and realized that every single sign in a park is now a portal and many times the same type of thing is named the same exact thing in their local parks. That seems to be a big turn off too. The amount of time they would need to spend to be able to go and just make triangles like they used to, even smaller ones is not time they have to waste (or expensive gas to waste).
It's not dead, it's just not the game it used to be. But it's also not the game most of us want it to be either. One day those in charge will listen to the agents, but by that time, it will likely be far too late to do much good.
And that EFFING SUCKS
A level 8 Machina portal is actually pretty darn weak and I regularly take them out with L4 or L5 xmps.
Considering how easy it is to level up to level 5, this isn't a bigger problem than you make it out to be.
Capturing mind units have always been a sub-culture of the game, one that I personally enjoy, but it requires an effective opposition. Right now, that is Machina.
Until there is a tonne of new players, which will require Niantic Corp to market Ingress.
Unfortunately many of the people who I've personally talked to about Ingress, have been turned off because they cannot play it as a PvE game, hence Agent Ops is absolutely essential.
Like the other game, scanning will be a task, and the old scanning system is bad. As of app 2.123.1 this is way better and on par with the Wayfarer App in terms of fidelity of scanning.
Whether or not you have applied scanning to your game is irrelevant, as it is optional.
Agent Ops Task System has been delayed until Q4 2023, and from there it is all up to Masa, Brian and Thia to get Niantic Corp to market Ingress as a game for new players.
Amen dude literally all of this. Not the game we wanted at all.
Another reason the game is dead, we just got doxxed today by an unstable player and Niantic doesn't care. They pointed out our home and work. Thanks for nothing Niantic.
Ingress was already dead. And i doubt that the people blaming machina bringing in competition want to have new players. They want to have their easy fields without distraction in "their" dead areas.
What did you do to bring the game back to life? maybe at least one faction is ready to gather players and make a boycott and stop playing? Or let's say someone decides to write a letter on behalf of the faction to reputable gaming magazines to tell about what is really going on inside our game?
Nobody is listening though, I've never known a company so out of touch with their community. This company that's made so much money from microtransacrions but can't dedicate even one person to reply to us
Message them on twitter is your best bet.
That's for the police. Niantic will do nothing unless they get law enforcement requests.
The law enforcement request is 2 birds with 1 stone.
sadly that goes both for brian and thia if u want a reply because here no
The choice to ignore global events is for sure a puzzling one. It’s one of the big reasons I’ve mostly stopped playing. Having trouble staying engaged and the FS/SS routine is definitely not gonna work forever. I’m glad some of y’all could play this game your entire life with no medals or global events, but I enjoy challenges that last a weekend or a week at a time, something I need to plan and prepare for. Something that requires effort and a medal that says, okay, that agent put in some work to achieve that.
That's the next step, we're gathering information, dates, etc. We're gonna start recording all the incidents in person so we can provide it to the police. Luckily there's some laws to help build the case. Should help with getting an order of protection to. People are simply done with the bullying.
but it seems to be definitives for them to answer questions, continuing to argue about it on here seems to not help in situations
If anything, they are more accountable on their Twitter (I'm not calling it X) handles as they disclose being Niantic employees. Sure, it's not the forums but there's more eyes looking.
Problem is whatever they reply over there on twitter/x most users will not see it because just a small % goes there vs check here which is their community but again they are not active here so i wonder sometimes why even have a community if the company never engages with their users here ? Ive yet to see a good answer on this.
Niantic has a long history with unexplainable things that no one uses.
The 'law enforcement' request in reports is BS.
Best of luck trying to obtain a police report for an incident in a game. In many countries it just isn't going to happen..
Police resources are stretched to the limits in many places and have more important stuff to deal with than disagreements between two players in a game, in particular verbal disagreements.
It is also NIA passing the buck somewhat.
They are happy to generate billions of $ through their various games, however are not prepared to spend the $ on properly safeguarding their games with a team that deals with incidents, cheating and spoofing.
I'd also add it would be good if they finally took the comments from BOTH parties in a dispute before coming to a decision.
To be fair, the community on here isn't always what the majority of players thinks, mainly example being machina, there's a decent amount if people on here rhat like and defend it, but at leady in my area its hated and actively stopped player playing
If you're being threatened in the game, the police would have more weight to helping versus Niantic.
If reclaiming Machina is so gosh darn easy, why do you only have 469 for your Reclaimer badge? You keep talking and running your mouth about how easy it is. Yet you barely have any. Not even halfway to silver. Lame.
Someone's badge count doesn't really speak to how easy or difficult it is to destroy a level 8 machina portal. Machina portals are low in health, have no shields, and have no one charging them. Relative to ENL/RES enemy portals machina portals are definitely easier to ****. They will pop in 4 level 8 bursters max and you can definitely **** them with level 4 or 5 bursters.
Yep, that is with on average, out playing once a week.
In areas with limited numbers of wayspots.
My statement still stands.
Likely will have silver before the end of September.
Gotta make machina links not block real human links or the game is dead. It really is that simple.